Pause National Team

Jules joined Pause in January 2017 as Chief Executive. She has worked in the not-for-profit sector for almost 30 years and has a background in campaigns, communications, policy and participation. She has always most loved the organisations that, like Pause, work to create real change, putting their beneficiaries at the heart of their work and learning from them to make a difference for others. Jules is a trustee of Blood Cancer UK and, to switch off, loves cooking, reading, walking, gardening and bird watching.

She’s very happy to talk about Pause or any of these things on Twitter (@rosylight), Instagram or Threads (@JulesHH26)

Ellen is a social worker and play therapist, with more than twenty years’ experience of working with children and families in statutory, voluntary and CAMHS settings. Having begun her career as a residential social worker, she has experience of a range of frontline work including child protection and court work, fostering and adoption work and of providing therapeutic services to children and adults as part of an award-winning innovative parental mental health service.

She has extensive experience of managing services for looked after children, frontline child protection and families involved in court proceedings and is a former Principal Social Worker for an inner London Borough. As a former manager of a hospital social work team, Ellen is very familiar with the circumstances of many of the women Pause supports and the devastating impact the repeated removal of their children has had on them.

She is passionate about the opportunity that Pause provides to work with women in a creative way to help them identify and reach their goals. At the heart of this is the relationships between Pause Practitioners and women, with the skills and experiences of both coming together to unlock potential.

Kate Tilley joined Pause in March 2017 as Head of Roll-out, becoming Director of Business Development in June 2017. She’s responsible for the mobilisation of the new Pause Practices and the Care Leaver pilots.

Kate joined Pause from the NSPCC, where she spent the previous ten years in various roles including rolling out evidence programmes for children and their families across NSPCC Service Centres and supporting the scale up of these services with external partners.

Kate has three teenage children who do a lot of sport, so spends most of her spare time as a taxi service but she does enjoy running and the gym.

Fiona joined Pause in December 2018 as the Training and Workforce Development Lead. Fiona has over 30 years’ experience working in the NHS and third sector to support vulnerable women and families, as a specialist midwife and also as a regional facilitator for the national charity Best Beginnings.

From 2016, Fiona took on the unique and innovative role of specialist midwife for the judicial system, working directly with women in custody in County Durham and developing a regional model for prison maternity care. Fiona led the team at Low Newton Prison to achieve the Health Services Journal patient safety award for best maternity and midwifery service 2018.

She lives with her husband and family in County Durham and enjoys fell running and amateur dramatics in her spare time.

Kaye joined Pause in January 2019, as HR and Governance Lead.

She’s spent most of her working life in charities that support people experiencing homelessness, many of whom face the same issues as women working with Pause. Kaye has always worked behind the scenes, creating policies and systems that build an environment where employees feel supported and equipped to carry out their work. She is passionate about helping charities to function effectively, so they can focus on enabling clients to make real changes in their lives.

Lesley joined Pause as our Executive Assistant in August 2017 and provides executive support to Jules Hillier, our Chief Executive and the wider Pause team. She also supports the board of trustees, including the quarterly board meetings and is the person to ask about the Chair of Trustees diary commitments.

Lesley manages the London office in City Road, making sure the office is a welcoming place to work and everyone has decent tea and coffee!

Lesley joined Pause with over 15 years’ experience within the IT corporate world, working at Capgemini and IBM. During this time, she supported global C-suite, board level executives and senior leadership teams across a variety of business units, such as communications, public sector and corporate social responsibility.

Sol joined Pause in March 2019 as the Training and Events Coordinator.

She has an extensive background in project management, event management and administration. After many years of working in a commercial environment, Sol was keen to join the charity sector for the work that she does to have a positive impact.

In her spare time, Sol enjoys hiking, running, travelling and cooking.

Amy joined Pause in March 2021, as the Coordinator for the Liverpool and Wirral Practice. In January 2023, she moved to the national team as Business Development Officer, supporting the wider team during the development of new Pause Practices.

Prior to working at Pause, Amy worked in a local authority safeguarding team, and had experience encouraging and championing women’s involvement in university sport and national campaigns.

Outside of work, Amy is a volunteer counsellor at Childline and enjoys long walks in the Lakes, followed by eating good food!

Clare is a charity consultant, with over fifteen years’ experience of communications and influencing in the charity sector. She has previously been Director of Communications and Influencing at Pause.

Specialising in getting people’s voices heard, Clare has particular interest in women’s rights and young people’s issues. She has managed campaigning at Women’s Aid, where she worked on campaigns such as making coercive control a criminal offence and increased investment in refuges. Prior to this, she worked in policy and public affairs at sexual health charities Family Planning Association and Brook. Clare is also a trustee at Working Chance and has over ten years of trustee experience.

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Emily joined Pause in March 2019 as Business Development Coordinator, supporting the wider team during the development of new Pause Practices.

Prior to this, Emily worked in the private sector, primarily within e-commerce and business development environments, as well as with the British Council in Europe and Latin America.

In her spare time, she enjoys exploring London’s markets and researching her next travel destination.

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Fi joined Pause in July 2021. As Communications Officer, Fi develops, designs and produces communications products that raise awareness about Pause’s work, while also providing a platform for the women that we work with to share their experiences. She is particularly interested in collaborative and participatory processes of creation and communication. 

Fi joined Pause from Tate Galleries, where she worked in the Development and Fundraising department, focusing on donor communications and stewardship. Prior to that, she worked in various countries in Latin America and Asia in the arts and non-profit sectors, in the field of women’s socioeconomic inclusion. This included working in Kathmandu, Nepal, on a digital media and technology training programme for marginalised women and girls.  

Outside of work, Fi enjoys visiting art galleries, knitting and working with textiles. She recently produced and directed her first documentary film. 

James joined the team in September 2021.  As Pause’s Data and Insight Analyst, he is responsible for using a wide variety of data to better understand the needs and journeys of women engaged with Pause programmes across the country, and supporting practitioners to embed these learnings in their work.

James joined Pause with several years’ experience of evaluating Social Inclusion projects within the Higher Education Sector, mostly working within the Outreach and Widening Participation teams at the University of East Anglia in Norwich.

Outside of work, James spends most of his time making music, cycling, coaching under-11s football and being a dad to his two primary school-aged children.

Karina joined Pause as the Involvement Assistant, a 12-month internship to assist with the coordination of Pause’s Getting Involved and Peer Support programmes. After a year in the role, she became the Involvement & Communications Assistant. Karina is very passionate about creating change in children’s social care policy and practice.

Before this role, Karina was a Peer Supporter at Pause. Karina has also volunteered at Change Grow Live, supporting those with substance misuse.

Outside of work, Karina enjoys boards games with her children, a freshly lit candle and good crime documentaries.

Kat joined Pause in September 2023 and is responsible for evidencing and sharing the impact of Pause’s work, as well as influencing national policy and system change.

She has over ten years’ experience of working in the third sector to influence policy change across a range of sectors, including children’s social care, criminal justice and disability, most recently at What Works for Children’s Social Care. She is passionate about ensuring that the voices of people with lived experience are at the heart of influencing activity, as well as policy recommendations being evidence-based. Some of her more notable projects include reforming statutory guidance to better support mothers in prison, influencing the Care Review and subsequent Implementation Strategy, and ensuring children with sight loss can live the lives they choose.

In her spare time, Kat enjoys baking, travelling and going for walks with her (very spoilt) dog.

Omolade joined Pause in March 2021. As Policy and Public Affairs Officer, Omolade is responsible for delivering key components of our influencing work. This ranges from developing policy positions on key issues, managing briefings and consultation responses, maintaining excellent working relationships with key stakeholders, and supporting women to campaign and influence themselves.

As a passionate and value-driven individual, Omolade has made it a point to challenge institutional barriers faced by marginalised communities to bring systemic change. Before joining Pause, she worked for a Member of Parliament, to monitor political and policy developments in Parliament by lobbying Government ministers on behalf of constituents and campaign groups. She also has experience lobbying and driving forward initiatives that tackle gender-based violence, sexual harassment and amplify the voices of marginalised communities within Higher Education in her past role as a sabbatical officer and trustee for the University of Kent Student Union.

Outside work, Omolade is a trustee for We Belong, a migrant youth-led organisation campaigning for the rights of young migrants in the UK. Feel free to contact Omolade on Twitter @adedapoomolade.

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Phoebe joined Pause in 2019, as the Women’s Involvement Officer. Phoebe’s role is to oversee Pause’s involvement and participation programme, Getting Involved, and to ensure that women’s voices are central to all of the work that Pause does.

Before coming to Pause, Phoebe was delivering a project for young parents going through the child protection system. Phoebe has a background in advocacy in the charity sector, working with vulnerable people with complex needs.

Outside of work Phoebe enjoys cooking, travelling, bad reality TV and dancing.

Anna joined Pause in 2015 as the first National Practice Lead for the original seven pilot areas. Over the last 3 years, Anna has supported the development and implementation of practices in Scotland and Northern Ireland as the Nations Practice Lead. Anna continues to support the practices in these areas and is also the National Practice Lead for Hackney, Barking & Dagenham, Northamptonshire and Worcestershire.

Anna is a qualified social worker with over 24 years of professional experience in children’s services in Essex and London, including Early Help, CAMHS and palliative care social work. Anna is passionate about trauma-informed approaches, reflective practice, grief and loss plus the use of creative therapeutic approaches and how they can be adapted to supporting women who have had children removed from their care.

Outside of work, Anna loves to travel and is the safeguarding Trustee for Homestart Suffolk.

Claire has spent the last 15 years working with women with complex needs across both statutory and non-statutory sectors. She is an experienced practitioner and qualified trainer, with a focus on domestic and sexual violence, LGBT intimate partner abuse, and women with multiple disadvantage. Claire is a SafeLives qualified advocate and has managed teams across criminal justice and social care settings, including previously being the Practice Lead for Pause Newham and is committed to delivering high quality systemic interventions.

The Pause approach of doing things differently and embracing innovative ways of working with hard to reach women is something that Claire is passionate about and she enjoys supporting Practitioners to develop and reflect in line with this.

As a National Practice Lead, Claire is responsible for providing high support/high challenge to Practices and helping maintain fidelity to the Pause model.

Ginny is an experienced social worker and team manager with 15 years’ experience across the public, private and third sectors. Her skills and professional knowledge have been acquired from working in a variety of roles with children, families and vulnerable adults. She has significant experience of children’s social care; from early help, through child protection and court proceedings, to residential care and permanency. Her approach brings this together with a strong ethics base and a specific interest in service user informed practice and systems development.

Prior to joining Pause, Ginny was involved in the set up and management of the Doncaster Children’s Trust’s Family Group Conferencing service, and acted as the employee representative for the Doncaster Children’s Trust. Most recently, she was the Pause Doncaster Practice Lead.

As Direct Delivery Lead, Ginny provides management and governance for all our directly delivered Practices, and ensures we continue to be a really good employer of frontline service

Hanisah joined Pause in November 2020. As Peer Support Officer, Hanisah works with women and Pause Practices to develop a peer support programme – where women who have worked with Pause use their skills to support other women based on their shared experiences.

Hanisah is a qualified Probation Service Officer and has worked with people facing disadvantage across the statutory and voluntary sector. She cares about people feeling included and having a say in the work that affects them.

Outside work, Hanisah is a volunteer befriender for The Children’s Society and enjoys cooking, camping and generally being outdoors.

Harpreet first joined the Pause network as a Practitioner in Slough in 2017, going on to become the Practice Lead until the practice closed in 2020. Harpreet then moved to Pause Southwark, where she was Practice Lead between February 2021 and June 2022. She joined the National team as a National Practice Lead in July 2022. Her role has a focus on Getting Involved and Peer Support. 

Prior to joining Pause, Harpreet qualified as a Social Worker in 2010 and has worked in various teams including Child Protection, Looked After Children – including working with children experiencing ‘late entry into care’ and those at risk of trafficking and exploitation – and Adoption and Permanence teams. 

Harpreet is interested in the contextual safeguarding approach developed by Professor Carlene Firmin and the possible application of this when working with vulnerable women. She is also passionate about the therapeutic, trauma-informed and anti-racist dimensions of the Pause approach, as ways of reaching women with complex needs. 

Outside of work, Harpreet is a Trustee for theMovement Charity.

Helen is an experienced Social Work Manager, with over 19 years experience in Local Authority Services. Helen has undertaken a range of positions, including Consultant Social Worker, Emergency Child Protection Social Worker, Ofsted Residential Childcare Manager and Pause Hull Practice Lead. She is experienced in implementing programmes of change and has taken a team from Inadequate to Good at Ofsted Inspection.

As well as holding a BSc in Social Work, Helen has completed her Intermediate Systemic Family Therapy Award and, more recently, an MSc in Social Policy and Social Research with Systematic Reviews. Helen is motivated to work differently, championing the belief that individuals are the experts on their lives, and that working together to empower others is key to achieving change in today’s society.

Paula joined the Pause network in 2018 as Practice Lead for Pause Doncaster working to embed Pause practice locally in Doncaster. She joined the National team as a National Practice Lead in April 2021 and became Quality and Innovation Lead in August 2023.

Prior to this, Paula worked as a Youth and Community Worker and Participation Manager in a national charity for 15 years and is passionate about working with women and learning from them as ‘experts by experience’. She completed her MA in Social Work in 2015 and worked in Child Protection before moving into her role with Pause, which combines both her child protection experience and her extensive experience of working face to face with girls and women, raising awareness of their needs and campaigning with them to achieve change.

She is passionate about relationship-based practice as the foundation for change and providing opportunities that make a positive difference in women’s lives.

Outside of work, Paula is a volunteer for Re-engage and enjoys exercise and hiking.

Follow Paula on Twitter @PJK74